If you are keen to learn, get to grips with something with the willing help of one of the net's original musician forums or possess a genuine willingness to contribute knowledge - you've come to the right place!

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iBreatheMusic Forums Rules

Registration to this forum is free!

We do insist that you abide by the rules and policies detailed below:

========The Mission
========

iBreatheMusic.com exists for established and aspiring musicians who want honest, quality instruction and a casual point of contact where they can interact and develop their skills with like minded people.

It's aim is to challenge/stretch the borders for learning music over the internet by actively developing online applications and tools.

Everything you will read below stems from our mission statement. In order to accomplish these goals, and to distinguish iBreatheMusic as an international learning community that is informal, fun, accessible and second to none in terms of quality of content, we have come up with the following guidelines and rules.

If you are in doubt about anything, please contact one of the site moderators or admin staff. We are here to assist in any way we can to ensure the smooth running of the forums.

==============Posting Guidelines==============

1. Please use self-explanatory titles when you create threads
This makes browsing and searching far easier and more effective.

2. Please try the built-in search engine to find your answers before you post.
It allows you to search through all articles as well as all forum content. There is also an "advanced search" feature in the forums.

3. Read through all previous posts in any given thread before you reply.

4. Please report any spam or posts which you feel MAY be inappropriate
Just press the button in the lower left column next to every post.

5. Please make a point of responding to any unanswered posts whenever you can.

6. Please welcome new members and make them feel right at home.

7. No more "Who's better, x or y?" / "Best guitarist of all times" / "Top 10 bands ever" threads please.
These threads usually don't lead to any constructive conclusions and take focus off the more core discussion topics. There are plenty of other boards that are dedicated to general band discussion. With the new forum reshuffle we will be removing this kind of post from now on [This is crucial if we're going to keep the quality of discussions up and stay on track to meet the site's goals]

8. Make sure you post in the relevant forum for your topic.
If in doubt, please use the "General" Forum.

9. If you have several questions regarding unrelated topics, please post them in separate threads.

10. Please do your best in terms of using correct grammar and spelling. Pls dnt post msgs like u wld on ya fone, k?. iBreatheMusic currently only supports English posts.

11. Please take 5 minutes to read the main forum Rules below.
They will give you a good understanding of what what is appropriate here at iBreatheMusic, as well as what isn't.

========The Rules
========

Firstly, let it be known that the iBreatheMusic.com team are generally a bunch of pretty relaxed people who don't particularly like the idea of policing and enforcing strict rules. However, we recognise the need to clearly define the basis for how things work, up front. It all basically boils down to:

- Conducting yourself professionally - as you would at work or in school.
- Treating fellow members with common courtesy and respect.
- Providing advice commensurate with your experience and/or education.
- Giving credit where credit is due for materials, information or quotes.

We ask everyone to please take the time to study the following rules and to please aid us in the quest of keeping things on-track by reporting inappropriate posts and just generally helping to steer the forums in the right direction. The forums are your show after all.

===========General Rules
===========

1. NO SPAM/ADVERTISING/PROMOTION/SELF-PROMOTION.

This includes posts that are clearly motivated by the promotion of a band, product or services over any medium (eg. your new cd, radio show, studio, "how to score free stuff" etc) irrespective of motive (eg. commercial/non-profit/charity/self glorification etc).

We also don't allow:

- Links to sites that contain reseller ids.
- Posts made by fans or "Street Teams" to simply promote a band or direct our users to purchasing such goods.
- Poaching / soliciting of our users. (eg. Targeting iBreatheMusic users to sign up for a service/website/project)

We are open to finding appropriate ways to present a good cause or projects that would be of genuine value/interest to the community. Please consult a moderator first before making such a post.

Always, if in doubt, consult a moderator.

2. NO "SMART PROMOTERS"

Every now and then someone joins the forums and posts in a way that is almost certainly motivated by self promotion, but they also actively contribute to an extent in order to disguise their promotion. 9/10 times, we'll notice very similar, if not identical posts on several other boards by the same user. Although some of their participation may prove constructive, we don't believe that this approach is in the spirit of iBreatheMusic and we take a tough stance on this. We reserve the right to warn or ban such users at our discretion.

3. NO FLAMING

Think of iBreatheMusic as a cafeteria (or bar) at a music college - a place where people from all over the world come to meet, ask questions and discuss music related topics in a learning context. We enjoy spirited debate, constructive argument and passionate dialog BUT sometimes things can get out of hand.

Please respect other people and their opinions, even if they differ completely from your own. We do not tolerate personal attacks, discrimination on any level, invasions of privacy, abusive or profane language or obvious attempts to provoke such behavior.

If you break this rule you will be suspended or banned. Please remember, the best way to avoid a flame war is personal restraint. Please don't fuel arguments that show signs of getting out of hand. If you feel the need to thrash it out, please rather resolve your issues through the private messaging system or in your own private capacity - off iBreatheMusic systems.

If you see any provocative or attacking posts, please report them immediately so we can keep an eye on things and intervene if necessary. To report a post, just click on the button below the user's name in the left hand column of the relevant post.

4. DO NOT POST OTHER PEOPLE'S MATERIAL, CLAIMING IT TO BE YOUR OWN

If you post TABs or sound files, give full credit to the people who created them and make sure you have the permission of the copyright owner before posting (see Rule #5).

If you´re caught posting someone else´s material, claiming it to be your own, you will be banned permanently. Thousands of surfers visit iBreatheMusic every day so you can be sure you'll be discovered sooner rather than later.

5. DO NOT POST COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL OR DOWNLOAD-LINKS FOR COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL

This includes MP3s (eg. songs or albums), TABs (eg. Instruction booklets to some REH instructional video), scans from books, bootleg recordings/videos or links to this kind of material. Links to online auctions for material that falls under this category is also not permitted.

6. NO DUPLICATE/MULTIPLE POSTS

If you need something urgently (eg. the answer to a question before an exam), say so in your post but don't post your thread more than once. Multiple posts add unnecessary clutter to the forums, are confusing and irritate the very people you're attempting to communicate with. Also, please pay attention as to where you post your message. The moderators are authorized to move threads to the correct place, but if you constantly post in the wrong forum, you´ll eventually get a warning.

7. ATTACHING FILES TO YOUR POSTS (eg. images / sound files etc)

The forums allow you to upload files with your post, but please only use this feature when it is necessary to support the content of your post (eg. tabs for a lick, a mp3 of your playing etc) and not pics of yourself, your car, your dog, x-rated pics or anything equally out of place. Once again, copyrighted material without the expressed permission of copyright holders is not permitted - see Rule #5.

8. DON´T ARGUE WITH THE MODERATORS ( AT LEAST NOT IN THE FORUMS )

The moderators are here to assist members and ensure the smooth running of the forums. It's their job to enforce the rules. If they ban a member, edit/remove a post or lock a thread - it will be for a reason.

Do not dispute a moderators decision or argue with them in the forums. If an action is taken against you that you feel was made in error or unjustified, please notify .

Please Note: iBreatheMusic is a privately funded, privately operated closed community forum. It is not an open public community forum where "free speech" is a right. Our approach has always been, and remains to only intervene in order to ensure the smooth running of the forums or when users breach the above policies. However, there may be occasions where we need to intervene for reasons beyond the scope of the policies listed on this page and we reserve the unconditional right to do so in order to protect ourselves,our users and the goals of the site itself. The administrators and moderators reserve the right to suspend, ban or delete user accounts at their discretion without giving prior warning.

9. ALL USER "INCIDENTS" ARE HANDLED PRIVATELY

Unfortunately, it sometimes becomes necessary to take action against a user. As a general rule we will not disclose details of the offences, nor the course of events leading up to such an action being taken - even if it comes as a surprise to some members of the community who express their dissatisfaction.

Why? The rules in place are reasonable and clear in terms of what is and what is not allowed. If our rules are violated, this immediately becomes a matter between us and them. If a user has an issue to take up, the correct procedure is to address it with us (see rule number 8). We refuse to waste our time defending our actions in the forums nor publically highlighting a user's offence in the interests of their privacy, to avoid flame wars and to keep the forums focussed on music. It's worth noting that we've had our share of vulgar personal attacks, legal threats and other unfortunate consequences arising from the running of an online community. We just hope that the vast majority of our users will look at our track record before making any rash personal assumptions.

============Signature Rules
============

iBreatheMusic.com allows you to display a custom signature below every post you make, but we do insist that you adhere to the following rules in order to keep the forums pleasant to browse and clear of visual clutter:

1. Please keep your signature limited to 4 lines or 100 characters.

2. Please follow the acceptable use of links in your signature:
You may include a link to your site or a URL that you represent, but the signature as a whole must not come across as a bold sales pitch/advertisement nor overshadow the content of your post. This is left solely up to the discretion of the iBreatheMusic moderators. Signatures must also comply with the general site rules listed above.

3. Your signature must not contain any links that lead directly to a download nor links with affiliate or reseller IDs.